ALONE AND AGAIN

ATUL BHALLA'S WORKS EXPLORE THE PHYSICAL, HISTORICAL, SPIRITUAL, AND POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF WATER TO THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT AND POPULATION. BY RE-FOCUSING ATTENTION TO THE CULTURAL MEANINGS AND ASSOCIATIONS OF WATER, WHICH HAVE BEEN MISPLACED IN A MODERN INDUSTRIALISED SOCIETY, THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY, AMONGST OTHER MEDIA, BHALLA ENGAGES IN A FORM OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM. HE EXAMINES WATER AS BOTH SYMBOL AND SOURCE OF RENEWAL AND RE-EXAMINATION, REFERENCING THE APPROPRIATION, UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION, COMMODIFICATION AND HEAVY POLLUTION OF WATER IN HIS CITY, NEW DELHI, WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY ALLUDING TO LOCAL CLEANSING RITUALS, THE COMMUNITY OF SHARING, AND OF PAYING REVERENCE TO WATER'S LIFE-GIVING FORCE.

IN ALONE AND AGAIN, ATUL BHALLA HIGHLIGHTS A SOLITARY TREE EMERGING FROM THE QUIET SIMPLICITY AND STILLNESS OF THE RIVER. THE REPETITIVE IMAGE CONJURES UP SENTIMENTS OF DESPAIR AND SOLITUDE EVOKING A SENSE OF NOSTALGIA AND LONGING FOR THE PAST VENERATION OF WATER'S LIFE-GIVING POWER, YET ON THE OTHER HAND THERE IS A SENSE OF FRAGILITY AND TIMELESS POWER OF THE SACRED RIVER SEEN HERE, SUGGESTING ITS CONTINUED ABILITY TO SUSTAIN AND NURTURE, DESPITE INDUSTRIALISATION. AS SUCH, ALONE AND AGAIN IS SIMULTANEOUSLY ENIGMATIC, POETIC, DISTURBING AND VISCERAL.